6 Excuses For Not Training (That Just Don’t Fly)

Combat sports have a stigma around them which makes people less likely to start combat sports training. We’ve identified the popular excuses people love to use to skip a workout. These excuses just don’t fly with us. Take a look at the top 6 excuses we’ve heard and how we put them to bed.

I have to get fit before training.

We understand where you are coming from. If you’ve watched combat sports, you understand just how physically demanding it is. That’s absolutely true, it’s one of the toughest physical activities you can do. That said, you don’t move a mountain by carrying the mountain away, you do it one stone at a time. We’re not going to drop you in the deep end, our expert coaches will make sure you don’t work any harder than you’re capable of.

The technical development aspect of the session is a lot less physically demanding than the more active, sparring parts. You’ll be focused and feeling good all the way through while learning everything you need to. “You can’t learn to swim without getting wet.”

I won’t have time/I’ll miss sessions.

We get that too. Life happens and you may sometimes have to postpone sessions on short notice. Our membership options afford you some flexibility so that you should never lose a single session.

Because of the physical, mental and psychological benefits of physical training and martial arts, the time you invest in training you’ll get back with interest. Studies of corporate physical training show an ROI of 1.62.

I’m going to get hurt/beat up

There’s a story I heard once about how adult lions in the pride will allow the cubs to bully them, to outwrestle them and feign pain to develop the confidence and capabilities of the cubs. Don’t quote me on that, but you get the point.

At FSC, ego is not tolerated. There’s no intrinsic satisfaction in bullying “fresh meat.” It is intrinsically satisfying to help someone develop, and that attitude is fostered in the gym.

Context is important there. Imagine you’re learning to avoid and counter by stepping back just far enough and then coming back with a strike of your own. Imagine how it’ll feel if your partner is going really slowly, and not really aiming to touch you. Now imagine the same thing, but now your partner is going fast and is trying to score the contact. One is competitive, real. Realness will help your partner grow and improve as a fighter.

The flip side to that is if you’re working with someone who is way more experienced than you. You’ll both learn pretty quickly about the disparity of capability, and it’ll be on the more senior guy to throttle himself back to a level that is challenging but not too difficult for you. He’ll do that because he was the new guy too once, and he remembers his senior doing that for him. We have beginners coming through all the time, so it won’t be long before you’re the senior, and it’ll be your turn to pay it forward.

I’ll get injured/I’ll injure myself

People have been fighting since they walked the earth. It’s as natural to us as sleeping and eating.

A study conducted by the John Hopkins University School of Medicine shows injuries in MMA occurring at a rate of 12.5 per COMPETITIVE ROUND ie. rounds of amateur or professional full-contact competition. More than 45% of those were facial lacerations (ie. cuts). That leaves just 6 injuries per 500 minutes of competition fighting.

Needless to say, competition fighting is much more intentionally violent than training. Add the protective equipment and restrictive, focused drills used during training, and injury rate drop again.

The truth is you may get injured. If you train for long enough, you probably will. That’s the reality of participation in every sport out there. But since our bodies are naturally inclined to fight, injury occurrence is much less frequent than in just about any other contact sport.

I’ll get bored and run out of motivation

Learning to fight is like standing over a black hole. The depth is endless. It’s a constant inquiry into your own mind, body and soul, and the mind, body and soul of your training partners and opponents. You’ll be constantly exploring new ways to move, new ways to understand the human mind, and new ways to stay focused. And you’ll feel the satisfaction that comes from becoming good at something, the satisfaction of uncovering the truth and moving toward mastery.

Fighting isn’t for everyone. That’s the reality of it. The only way to find out if it’s for you is to try. Once you know, you know.

I’ve never trained before

Good, that means there are no bad habits to break. The beginner’s mind is an important asset to maintain. Only dead things have reached conclusions. Constantly approach training with an open mind, a mind hungry to test, to learn and to develop.

That doesn’t mean that as you improve you must forget your “A” game. Always have your A game ready to go. Know your A game, and keep the feeling of the beginner’s mind.

TL/DR?

I have to get fit first. You’ll get fit by doing, not by not doing. You’ll work at a level that pushes you out of your comfort zone, but not all the way to unbearable.
I won’t have time/I’ll miss sessions. We understand life happens, our membership structure affords quite a lot of flexibility, so you should never lose a session.
I’m going to get hurt/beat up. Ego and bullying are not tolerated. Everyone was a beginner once and had a senior throttle it back from them, so they’ll do it for you, and you’ll do it for the next guy.
I’ll get injured/I’ll injure myself. All sports carry a risk of injury. You’re looking at 1 injury per 83 rounds of amateur and professional competition fighting. That’s a pretty small risk, considering training is even safer than a competition.
I’ll get bored and run out of motivation. If you have a taste for martial arts and fighting, then fight sports training is one of the most intrinsically satisfying things you can do. Our sessions are structured based on cutting edge motivation and coaching techniques that will ensure you (rightly) feel improvement, progress toward mastery and satisfaction!
I’ve never trained before. Good, that means there are no bad habits to break. The beginner’s mind is an important asset to maintain.